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How Building Corporate Confidence in Cloud Services Will Help Bigger Businesses

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Cloud Services

If the Cloud works, then it behoves bigger businesses to get in on it. That’s a simple given. So clearly building corporate confidence in the technology will help to introduce more businesses to its benefits.

The key question, then, is this. Is the Cloud ready for big business, or indeed for any business at all? I mean, we hear the word being bandied around every day, but it still isn’t clear whether the Cloud is really anything new or definable – or just another industry buzzword for a bunch of existing technologies, repackaged to sell a shiny new service we don’t need.

The idea behind the Cloud is simple enough. You no longer “own” your own software tools, instead you hire them from a company that is responsible for maintaining them all, buying the licences and ensuring that you always have access to the latest technology in your service package. The location of all the services you buy is more conceptual than actual – hence the name. When you live and work “in the Cloud”, you take down both the software tools you use and the processing power to make them run properly from discrete locations owned or leased by the company from which you are purchasing time and backup. → Read More

RockMelt Browser Expected to Overtake Chrome

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RockMelt

In web surfing your limited by what your browser can do. Whether you choose Firefox, Internet Explorer, or Google Chrome, your browser is what your use to access the vast information available to you. With the use of social media for both personal and business use, internet usage is higher than ever. Now many users are looking for a solution for keeping their social media in order while still being able to browse the internet. Google Chrome has lately been that solution with more speed than Firefox but still offers the tabbed browsing needed to stay connected to multiple social media pages.

Its increase in popularity has caused Firefox and Internet Explorer to fall into the background. Now a new browser may very well threaten the number one spot Google Chrome holds. The RockMelt social browser offers features Google Chrome doesn’t while still offering the speed users are accustomed to.

App Add-Ons:

Similar to Chrome, RockMelt utilizes tabbed browsing to allow users to connect to multiple pages simultaneously. This is especially useful with RockMelts apps that are integrated into the browser. These apps allow users to customize a toolbar that runs down the left side of the page. → Read More

Online Shopping Makes Everything Easier

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Online Shopping

Everyone knows that shopping online is the best thing since the assorted sliced bread of our millennium: things like cable TV, iPhones, instant mac and cheese and Snuggies.

Remember the days when eBay was an outright phenomenon, an obscure journey into untested waters? When people were afraid to give the mysterious Internet their credit card information? When we felt unsure about sending an order for 2 cable knit sweaters and a movie poster out into an unknown ether?

But, as more eBay auctions were won, as the Internet proved itself to be fairly reliable with securing your information, and as your orders sent off into a cyber-abyss appeared on your doorstep 4-10 business days later, we began putting more and more faith into the power of online shopping.

Fast-forward 10 years. Do you remember what the inside of bookstores looked like? Who can’t navigate online shopping sites with one arm tied behind their back? Who doesn’t have their credit card number memorized to punch into websites on the go and place your order for 12 pairs of fuzzy socks?

Well, for all those who haven’t yet converted to the joys of online shopping, here are three reasons to give it a try, especially for the upcoming holiday season. → Read More

Google Cloud Connect for Microsoft Office

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Google Cloud Connect

Apart from being the world’s leading search engine, Google is full with surprises on every corner. Have you ever thought about how combining Google Docs and Microsoft Office would be great? Just imagine the combo of Google Docs’ ability to store documents in the cloud and usability and features offered by MS Office. Not possible? Check again.

Google Cloud Connect, a free add-in for Microsoft Office, offers you exactly this kind of synergy. Google Cloud Connect lets you store Office documents directly to Google Docs. No need to upload anything, it’s all automatic.

Simple Installation

The installation of Google Cloud Connect is very simple. After the installation is finished, your Google Cloud Connect will become available to you as a toolbar found at the top of your MS Office. Every time you want to save a file to Google Docs, just click Sync, and the document will be saved and synced automatically. You can also adjust the syncing behavior to be manual, and have Google Cloud Connect sync only when you tell it to.

Collaborative Editing and Sharing Options

Google Cloud Connect for MS Office offers interactive multi-person editing options to the familiar MS Office environment. You are able to share, create backups, and edit Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files and documents with your co-workers. → Read More

3 Reasons Usenet Will Live Forever

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Usenet

Long before the inception of the World Wide Web, Usenet thrived among the tech world. It was a simple concept that allowed users from around the world to share messages with each other. In many ways, Usenet was the first social network. But unlike the social networks of today, Usenet remains unique.

You see, Usenet is a decentralized network. There is no central server. No central administrator. This decentralized approach allows for the data on Usenet to be shared with other Usenet servers all over the world. The openness and freedom of the Usenet structure has allowed it to continue flourishing well into its third decade. Usenet provides some other advantages over other popular download methods as well.

1. Speed

We live in a fast paced world. Anyone can tell you that. New products and technologies emerge daily replacing those that do not stay ahead of the curve. As news and rumors surface daily about the next iPhone, those with the last version are left envious of the new product and its capabilities. → Read More

Google To Freshen Up Results: What Does This Mean?

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Google

Google constantly changes its algorithm hundreds of times during a year, however many of the changes do not really affect the search results and if they do it is normally only a nominal affect. Occasionally some of the changes they introduce can have some pretty big impacts on search results and one such change that happened earlier this year was the well known ‘Panda Update’.

The Panda Update basically devalued low quality content and links from low quality content sites such as links from article directories like Ezine Articles. The overall effect of the Panda Update was about 12% of internet search queries, however the new update is suggested to affect about 35% of search queries which is a huge figure and certainly bigger than anything we have seen before.

Explain Further Please

This update has been a long time coming and was first discussed in 2007 where engineers coined the term ‘query deserves freshness’. This means certain topics need very up to date fresh results included in them such as boxing results, football score fixtures, recent news, weather forecasts etc. In these types of cases the content needs to be updated very quickly because you do not want results for old sports matches coming up first as this would make the search results far less relevant. → Read More

Learning From Steve Jobs’ Passing

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Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs ended his 2005 Stanford University commencement speech with the words: Stay hungry. Stay foolish.

The phrase came from the final issue of a catalog he read in the mid-1970s. It’s poetic and philosophical, but also theoretical given Steve Jobs’ untimely passing.

In a world where heart disease and cancer are the leading causes of death, how are we supposed to stay hungry, stay foolish but also stay healthy and live a productive life?

Maintain a Healthy Lifestyle

Though not all forms of cancer are curable and detectable at an early stage, many are and Steve Jobs showed us that no one is immune to this disease. Jobs’ illness, a rare pancreatic cancer, has a low survival rate, with 75% of patients dying within a year of diagnosis and 95% dying within five years.

To prevent many forms of cancer unlike Jobs’ type, maintaining a healthy lifestyle is one of the most important steps. A third of all cancer deaths are related to poor diet and lack of physical activity, making a healthy lifestyle important in cancer prevention. Seeing a doctor on a regular basis will ensure early detection and re-direction to the correct specialists for timely and effective treatment.

Steve Jobs passing and rare form of cancer serve as reminders that life is short and we must live to our fullest in the time that we have. → Read More

How Often is Google Maps and Google Earth Updated?

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Google Earth

One of the commodities of having an earth mapping system in place such as Google Maps, is that the maps tend to be much more accurate than those purchased at convenient stores and gas stations across the world. The truth is that roads, pathways, road names, route numbers, and terrain across the world are changing on a continuous basis. While your ‘difficult to fold’ paper map may get you in the right direction, it won’t always get you to your destination. This is where Google Maps comes in, blending with GPS technology to offer you the latest and greatest mapping information available today.

The good news is that Google Maps and Google Earth are making continuous strides to update their maps. Imaging from around the world is constantly taking place and being refreshed on a daily basis. This means that Google Maps doesn’t necessarily follow an ‘update schedule,’ and is instead constantly adding new imagery and digesting data given to them through pictures, satellites and the general public. → Read More

How Much Will Apple Be Affected by the Loss of Steve Jobs?

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Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs is one of the few people who became a worldwide legend during his lifetime. His death, naturally, has many wondering what will happen to Apple, the company that he co-founded and led for so long. For many people, Steve Jobs was Apple. He filled many roles at the company, including visionary, supreme marketer, demanding taskmaster, innovator, and unsurpassed strategist. In fact, Jobs has been called this generation’s Thomas Edison. Like Edison, he was one of those rare individuals who changed the everyday lives of much of the world’s population. What will happen to Apple without such a man?

The answer is that Apple will be just fine. It’s a lot more than just one man. In fact, in terms of market capitalization, it’s the world’s second largest corporation behind Exxon Mobile. Sometimes, Apple even surpasses Exxon, depending on stock prices. Right now, Apple is worth about $350 billion compared to Exxon at $359 billion. Apple also has $80 billion in cash in reserve. The company’s huge cash cushion gives it room for some missteps while it adjusts to life without Steve Jobs. In addition, Apple is trading at the rather modest P/E ratio for a technology company of 12 to 1. James Altucher, a prominent tech investor, believes that Apple could become the first company in history with a market cap of $1 trillion. Analysts are skeptical of this, but many of them agree that a stock split could lead to a substantial increase in the company’s value. So, even without Jobs, Apple will remain a valuable company for years to come. → Read More

Moving Between Addresses – The IPv6 Conundrum

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IPv6

Since 1996 the internet protocol version 6 addresses (IPv6) has been made available to succeed the prevalent but depleting IPv4. The progression of the “next-generation” internet will rely on the uptake of this new internet protocol especially as developing mobile and cellular industry sees the demands for new IP addresses increase at a substantial rate. Despite this increased requirement, companies are still reluctant to prepare services and infrastructures to facilitate the transition from one protocol to another.

The main priority is encouraging industry leaders and small scale organisations to look at the issue of a depleting IP address pool and challenge what can be done to make the transition as smooth as possible. It is for this reason that the IPv6 addresses are being heavily promoted by the major internet players as a response to the dwindling supply of IPv4 addresses. However the transition between both protocol versions might see a darker side of the industry as companies with IPv4 stock piles move toward creating an unregulated industry of selling the high value commodity. → Read More